Official : Bendis gets both books

[Yoda]

Speaking of her...look I like Lois. I really do, I always have. She has a legacy and is a female icon. But narratively, its gets a little out there with things like her being the most important character in the DCU. I mean if its just a symbolism thing, again because of her iconic nature, okay. And I also get they want to do something important with her now of all times considering the real world climate and this war on reporters that a certain someone has started. But I can't help but be afraid its going to turn out as contrived if the idea is trying to make it an actual narrative point. Because within the lore of the DC Universe...she just isn't. Its not a slight on her, its the same thing as pointing out Alfred isn't the most important character in the DCU. He's great too, the mythos of the total universe just doesn't revolve around either character. I hope I'm just getting ahead of myself. Maybe its just a situation where she has info that she has to be careful about when and how to release it so Superman and the rest of the heroes can do their thing and have a chance. A big weight and responsibility in that regard. I could buy something like that.

I think he's talking thematically rather than literally in like the Injustice sense that it would collapse into fascist terror if she weren't there. She's a character that can, when used properly, maneuver through the entire DCU and serve a connection between various elements of the universe and through her work get to important truths that other characters wouldn't necessarily have access to. You can drop her into any corner of the DCU and have her fit a story through her role as a POV character.

[Superlad93]

Really strong and almost candid interview. Big shout out to Vaneta Rogers.

Few things we learned/gained more clarity on/teased/have coming up:

* So, in regards to the cover of Superman issue 8, "it’s purposely mysterious on whether he’s [Jon] in a good place or bad place." The cover being shocking and evoking a fear that Jon may be dipping his toe pretty hard into the "angry teen" side of the pool was deliberate. This indicates that what his personality and outlook are will be the reveal, so to speak.

* Bendis floats the idea of Clark having to find out, "has he time-traveled? Or has he lost years of his son’s life?" (It's unclear if Bendis is implying that Superman may think he himself has traveled in time or if Jon is the one who has.) I continue to dig how Bendis has his characters fully acknowledge all of the strange possibilities associated with their world. This is similar to Hal saying that they may need to get a cross dimensional head count of Kryptonians (over in MOS).

* Jon on the cover for Superman 8 is in fact a teenager.

* Bendis talks about using this as a form of tragedy in Clark and Lois’ life. I find this interesting because it is so not the norm for superhero comics or for even Superman to NOT immediately associate the term "tragedy" with physical death. You count down all the great tragedies in superhero comics (and most fiction, if we're honest) and it's "the death of ______", so characterizing something like missing out on time with your kid as a "tragedy" in a characters life is a good deal more complex a set of emotions to have a group of characters unpack. It's not just simply "grrrrrrrr why did kill_____" or "*sob* *sob* you killed____" There's more because the focal point (character they're upset something happened to) is still there and as a whole spectrum of emotions to go through too. This being the crazy/high concept equivalent to Jason dying or Damian dying is interesting. "Tragedy" divorced from conventional "darkness" is a fascinating play that I think only like Superman, Shazam, and the Fantastic Four can play stright faced.

* This also seems to imply that Bendis is working under twin paradox theory. Basically the idea is that there are two twin brothers. One goes to space while the other stays on Earth. If the distance the space twin need to travel to and from Earth is great enough, then this same twin comes back at a different age from the one on Earth because time has passed differently. DC and comics in general usually get by this by having characters going to space fly at translight speed or use warps. I guess this time the distance was too great or Jor-El did it deliberately?

* Vaneta Rogers brings up the fact that Lois said she saw Jon hit puberty in Action 1004, but Bendis doesn't confirm or refute if Jon's genetics are the reason behind his aging up. But the thing is, Lois went on the trip too, yet she didn't age. AND she will apparently be just as surprised as Clark by Jon's age and look. So, what seems to be the case is that Lois saw Jon grow a bit fairly quickly while she was there, then after she left to go home, Jor-El took Jon to go start those wars and what have you and during that time either Jon's genetics kicked into high gear or Jor-El didn't use the same means of travel that let Lois come along and get home without aging.

* This quote was pretty great, to me "he’s really being pushed into areas where he has to decide what kind of hero he needs to be at this moment, and that’s going to include some bigger choices coming up. It’s not going to be choices between, like, life and death, but choices about what kind of — because I don’t mean the choice between whether he blows someone’s head off or not — what I mean is that he’s going to have to make some choices about what kind of actions he takes as Superman on behalf of all of us." The fact that the bold is not the point of this quote is maybe my favorite part. Again, in most superhero fiction and in a lot of Superman stories of the last 3 decades, when a writer says "the hero is going to have to make a lot of hard choices" it's an open secret that they mean "they're gonna decide if they wanna kill or not." As we recently discussed in a thread on here, that's a pretty beaten to death idea when it comes to Superman. Focusing on the idea stopped being fun a long while ago. Bendis pays it some respects in the most recent issue of Superman, but he glides past it pretty quickly, and it's great to hear that it won't be a central part of the internal conflict Clark will be wrestling with in this run.

* Red Cloud is character with a relationship is to Clark and Lois and the rest of the DC Universe apparently. My guess of it being Ms. Moore is seemingly out. Could it actually be some sort of duplicate Lois of some kind? Lois seems to be making her way to the forefront of the DCU, and there's still quite the question mark on what she saw out in space.

* They aren't breaking up. They aren't on a break. They aren't falling out of love with one another. They aren't on the road to breaking up. It's not even ambiguous. Like, at all.

* Lois did if fact learn something out in space. She's keeping it from Clark for his protection and general safety. She's also writing about it (seems like keeping her friends at the Planet safe is why she didn't go back.) This is very similar to what Bendis did with Luke and Jessica when Jessica had to distance herself from Luke, take their kid from him, and keep Luke in the dark. It was all because Shield tapped her for work and it required a lot of espionage. What Lois learned has NOT been shown yet, and it will be revealed to us as we go along. Other creators will be making Lois and apparently up scaling her importance in the DCU by quite a bit, so that's something to really look forward to.

*Side note: Hmm, anyone else think the shoe might be on the other foot, and Clark will start investigating Lois' secret? Some serious Carmen Sandiego vibes here.

* Red Cloud is a foe that Superman won't be able to fight, so he'll have to tag in Clark, and try his very best to live up to Lois in the job that he chose for himself.

* Bendis seems to be sort of building his own shared universe within the DCU's already shared universe. Wonder Comics is 100% in continuity, is edited by the Superman group, and Bendis will be making a point to cross things over between books. Dial H will be the first. He's also quick to once again say that Jon and Conner meeting is 1000% on his radar.

* The Question seems to have found a home in Action Comics as reoccurring character. His story will be a slow burn and it's linking up to a story coming next summer.

[manwhohaseverything]

Bendis said he was going to use Lois as sort of an inspirational figure for Clark. In the last issue of superman it was quite evident that is direction they are taking superman. For people, that feel the post crisis superman was too relient on paa and ma for solving deliemas. From the looks of it, Lois might be taking that role.

If him and other writers for example, someone here said Tom King wants to use Lois like, she is the most important character in DC isn't it good thing.It is Lois 's 80th year too, right.If you ask me, It is way better than some character like Harley being the centre of DCU.

She is a human,a reporter, has some fighting skill from her background (but not at street vigilantee/superhero level) , has a history. She is for all intents, a female average Joe. She can give a perspective of DCU like no one can. No superhero can give that not even Clark.Since, Clark is not that fragile. She is a human who is married to most powerful being on earth and went to space with his dubious father in law Learned some secret about universe which has gods,space police with power rings.. Etc. It would interesting to learn it from her perspective. How she handled her vulnerability and her fears.. etc when she faces God like beings. She can even get political with her Job being a reporter.

What she thinks of non powered vigilantes like question, green arrow.. etc and meta humans will be good. Especially, with superman theory and doomsday clock.Since, bendis said his books will tie into doomsday clock

[Yoda]

* Red Cloud is character with a relationship is to Clark and Lois and the rest of the DC Universe apparently. My guess of it being Ms. Moore is seemingly out. Could it actually be some sort of duplicate Lois of some kind? Lois seems to be making her way to the forefront of the DCU, and there's still quite the question mark on what she saw out in space.

I guess it depends on how he meant relationship and whether it was a preexisting relationship or not. He was being cute with the interviewer, but you could say Robinson Goode has a connection with Lois in the sense she has her old job at the Planet at the moment. And Melody Moore's relationship with Clark is as a presumed source, but could be double agent so to speak, with Lois presumably becoming involved in that investigation. My money is still on Moore. The preview pages released in that interview look to throw suspicion off Moore, but Red Cloud shows up exactly where she would have assumed Clark would send Superman.

* They aren't breaking up. They aren't on a break. They aren't falling out of love with one another. They aren't on the road to breaking up. It's not even ambiguous. Like, at all.

He's really going out of his way to try and dispel this interpretation of that issue. I'm glad for that, now hopefully what we actually see in upcoming storylines is less ambiguous.

* Lois did if fact learn something out in space. She's keeping it from Clark for his protection and general safety. She's also writing about it (seems like keeping her friends at the Planet safe is why she didn't go back.) This is very similar to what Bendis did with Luke and Jessica when Jessica had to distance herself from Luke, take their kid from him, and keep Luke in the dark. It was all because Shield tapped her for work and it required a lot of espionage. What Lois learned has NOT been shown yet, and it will be revealed to us as we go along. Other creators will be making Lois and apparently up scaling her importance in the DCU by quite a bit, so that's something to really look forward to.

*Side note: Hmm, anyone else think the shoe might be on the other foot, and Clark will start investigating Lois' secret? Some serious Carmen Sandiego vibes here.

This should be interesting, I really hoped the book subplot wasn't going to be drawn out because it was hard to see Lois having an active role in the books. Again, he's promising an awful lot and we haven't seen anything to back it up yet. Sounds like May is when things will really start to kick into high gear building into the summer Superman event.

[Sacred Knight]

Bendis said he was going to use Lois as sort of an inspirational figure for Clark. In the last issue of superman it was quite evident that is direction they are taking superman. For people, that feel the post crisis superman was too relient on paa and ma for solving deliemas. From the looks of it, Lois might be taking that role.

It sounds like that inspiration is more how he approaches his job as a reporter. Which makes sense because she's always been the better of the two at that. Also I have no problem with him viewing her, and his parents, as an ideal of the human spirit. That makes sense too because they are/were great people. It only becomes a problem when it becomes a dependency. I don't mean your usual romantic platitudes like "I need you"; that's fine, rather being overly reliant in practice, where he can't do his thing without them holding his hand. And he's not at that post-Crisis level right now, not even close. Hopefully it doesn't go there again. Indeed, we saw him functioning quite well during a time when his wife and son were gone and he couldn't contact them. Yeah he was sad, but he still did his thing. That's an example of all I ask.

[Superlad93]

My money is still on Moore.

Those are good points.

now hopefully what we actually see in upcoming storylines is less ambiguous.

I didn't find last issue to be ambiguous when it came to the two still being in love and together, but that might just be me. As Lois and Clark hammer out their new dynamic while things are as they are (Lois' project) hopefully it'll become more and more clear for everyone.

This should be interesting, I really hoped the book subplot wasn't going to be drawn out because it was hard to see Lois having an active role in the books. Again, he's promising an awful lot and we haven't seen anything to back it up yet. Sounds like May is when things will really start to kick into high gear building into the summer Superman event.

I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been 5 issues (this week) for both titles. During Rebirth we'd have had 10 done already. But beyond that he calls himself out on being a slow burn/build up writer. But thankfully this Red Cloud mystery is something he wants to semi answer right now because there's more story to it. In terms of what kind of active role Lois will take in the future and when we'll see it? Act 1 seems to be drawing to a close, and the Leviathan storylines seems to be the start of 2, and from the sound of that, it seems like that's where we'll start to see the money to go with Bendis' mouth.

With the Lois book in development, her holding onto a game changer of a secret, and Lois apparently being the most important person in the DCU somehow, it seems like they'll be setting that book up as best as possible for a non superhero character. I honestly didn't have much thought about the book on its own past having it live or die based on the team behind it, but this talk is turning it into a possible must buy.

[Yoda]

I didn't find last issue to be ambiguous when it came to the two still being in love and together, but that might just be me. As Lois and Clark hammer out their new dynamic while things are as they are (Lois' project) hopefully it'll become more and more clear for everyone.

I've said this before, but it's ambiguous in the sense that it's a pretty standard romcom trope that one person says they need space to rediscover themselves, and then shocking no one, discovers that they are not in love with their partner anymore. I mean, it's the "I love you, but I'm not IN love with you" type thing.

[Vordan]

Jon might have time travelled huh? Wonder if that’s going to start setting up Legion. I’d love for Jon to spend some time with them.

[Miles To Go]

I've said this before, but it's ambiguous in the sense that it's a pretty standard romcom trope that one person says they need space to rediscover themselves, and then shocking no one, discovers that they are not in love with their partner anymore. I mean, it's the "I love you, but I'm not IN love with you" type thing.

I didn't get that feeling at all. We know from what Bendis has said that Lois isn't taking time away to rediscover herself, but to protect Clark from things that might overwhelm him. She's doing what she's doing out of love and coming up with excuses to cover for that.

I wish people would stop assuming the worst of Lois or expecting there to be a twist that ends the marriage. Newsarama came directly at Bendis with that paranoid agenda. That's not happening. I don't blame anyone for jumping to that conclusion because AC#1004 wasn't executed all that competently, but there is no break-up coming, nor a loss of romantic love from Lois.

[Yoda]

I don't blame anyone for jumping to that conclusion because AC#1004 wasn't executed all that competently, but there is no break-up coming, nor a loss of romantic love from Lois.

That's what I meant. I don't expect a breakup or anything negative either, because I have listened to and read his interviews. Had I not, I wouldn't be so confident. I just hope that going forward what is actually presented in the books is less ambiguous with her motivation and their status so that it doesn't require three interviews to explain what he intended.

[Miles To Go]

That's what I meant. I don't expect a breakup or anything negative either, because I have listened to and read his interviews. Had I not, I wouldn't be so confident. I just hope that going forward what is actually presented in the books is less ambiguous with her motivation and their status so that it doesn't require three interviews to explain what he intended.

Well said.

Another worry is that a lot of Bendis' interview jargon will filter through into the characters again in later issues.

[Yoda]

Jon might have time travelled huh? Wonder if that’s going to start setting up Legion. I’d love for Jon to spend some time with them.

I read that a little differently, in that Superman may have to first figure out if he time travelled to Jon. I expect that the end of Superman #6 will be Jon calling for help on whatever device Lois brought back to communicate with them to ask for help and Clark, in traveling to him and seeing the older Jon, will think he time travelled.

Well said.

Another worry is that a lot of Bendis' interview jargon will filter through into the characters again in later issues.

That's really the most frustrating thing. At Marvel, Bendis would have PAGES of dialogue heavy conversation between characters explaining things ad nauseam. But Action 1004 is word for word the pitch for the new (still undefined) status quo he made in several pre-release interviews. I was expecting Ultimate Spider-Man #13 or any number of Luke & Jessica conversations. But instead literally got July's Newsarama interview.

Ugh, I need a new issue to come out so I can stop hyper-analyzing this one.

[DragonPiece]

Another interview. Bendis teases his secret book with Ryan Sook which is being teased in action, but B says it's not a Question book. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/exclus...ints-at-future

I wonder what this big project can be? And I guess action will just keep switching artists then, not that I mind since good artists keep coming onto the book..

[Vordan]

Another interview. Bendis teases his secret book with Ryan Sook which is being teased in action, but B says it's not a Question book. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/exclus...ints-at-future

I wonder what this big project can be? And I guess action will just keep switching artists then, not that I mind since good artists keep coming onto the book..

One good thing about Bendis is artists love him. He rarely gets poor artists.

[Denirac]

https://www.denofgeek.com/us/books/s...ial-h-for-hero

Bendis Teases the Future involving Lots More Question and Jon Kent's return in a New Interview about Action